The Benne escape, used purchases before jumping on the train

15 kilometers west of Rennes, at L'Hermitage station, you can take the train. Normal ! you will say. But you can also buy second-hand clothes or furniture there. A recycling center, l'Echappée Benne, offers second-hand objects, rescued from recycling centers or donated by individuals.

It scrubs, it sweeps. The walls, the floors, the windows, everything goes… The former premises of the Hermitage station are transformed into a recycling center. A store in tune with the times since there are on sale second-hand items, recovered from individuals or saved from the recycling centers of the Rennes metropolis. They find a second life here. Like what Emmaüs offers.

So that morning, if everyone was polishing in a good mood, it was because the opening of L'Echappée Benne was the culmination of a long road to carry out this project.

"It will be pretty. It's the reward for all our work, says Marie-Andrée, rag in hand. It was really dirty, there were flies everywhere when we entered the building, thousands of flies. It had been closed for three years!"

Marie-André, Cheik, Betty, Jean-Louis… are all volunteers. They followed this adventure in the wake of a young dark-haired woman, full of energy, Mélanie Anger.

Her second child was born in 2017 and she also questioned them: "September 2017, I tell myself I want to set up a recycling center. We have to consume differently, not just new things, reuse objects."

Reuse, reuse

In a dry and jerky tone, Mélanie recalls this obstacle course. She took the time to sit down to chat, but the way she puffed on her e-cigarette betrayed her eagerness to get back to the job site. She overcame obstacles, united forces to restore this old SNCF station, collect objects. "I really wanted to act in sustainable development and ecological transition, says the former educator of young children with a smile. It is sure that it is the search for meaning that guided me."< blockquote class="twitter-tweet">

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The reuse areas of recycling centers

Mélanie knocked on the door of local authorities, trained in social and solidarity economy, then signed an agreement with Rennes Métropole. This agreement gives him access to recycling centers in mainland France. “Of the 19 recycling centers in the metropolis, 11 are equipped with reuse zones,” explains Laurent Hamon, vice-president of Rennes Métropole in charge of waste and the circular economy. In these recycling centers, "recycling agents", invite individuals to deposit objects that can be reused in these reuse areas, where only recycling centers approved by the metropolis can come and use them.

More than 500 tonnes of waste reused in 2021

"We throw away too much, notes the elected official. While we can give a second life to a lot of material. In 2019, thanks to this device , we have 'diverted' 242 tonnes of waste from the city's recycling centers. For 2021, we are already at 490 tonnes at the end of August."

Rennes Métropole will provide aid of €6,000 for the start-up of the Echappée Benne, as for all the recycling centers with which it signs an agreement. Then the subsidies will depend on the number of "diverted" tonnes and the sales area.

Return to the Hermitage

Reducing waste on its territory is also what appealed to Jean-Louis. At L'Hermitage, he too is not skimping on his efforts to restore the old station to its original condition. "You have to be able to make business available for people who don't have the means", agrees the retiree.

"Can you come and fix something in the toilet?" Betty challenges Besmir, who complies. But Betty has already gone elsewhere: "Ah, don't put junk in the sink!"

The anthill of volunteers never ends, it's like being in a train station during rush hour! Today, Alain passes the broom. Tomorrow, he attacks the painting then he will put the shelves, he assures. "We met at the forum of associations, smiles Alain. I was immediately ready for the project. If only we could throw less..."

"A totem of the social and solidarity economy"

Mélanie, she already sees further. She wants to make Echappée Benne a "totem of the social and solidarity economy" in the North-West of the Rennes metropolis.

"We should also be able to offer a repair café (Editor's note: place of mutual aid to learn or help repair everyday objects), a space for conviviality, exhibitions, have a storage place next to the shop... And create jobs to sort, coordinate volunteers, communicate… But the turnover will depend on the surface, advances Mélanie Anger. We do not sell expensive but we sell a lot, so we need space.

Suffice to say that the 100 m2 of the premises of the former Hermitage station will only be a first step. The train of Mélanie and the Echappée Benne should quickly go to other horizons.